For months, the man police are accusing of gathering the ingredients to create volatile explosives mused – in person and online – about testing the capabilities of Toronto’s G20 security.
Friends say Byron Sonne talked about obtaining the “chemical precursors” to explosives “in an attempt to purposefully raise flags and get ‘the man’ to take a look at me... but no luck,” as he wrote on an online forum for HackLab T.O. last fall.
It would seem “the man” looked.
Toronto police entered his Elderwood Drive home in Toronto’s tony Forest Hill neighbourhood with a warrant Tuesday; Mr. Sonne is now accused of obtaining the ingredients to make triacetone triperoxide – a powerful and volatile explosive used in 2001 by thwarted “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.
Mr. Sonne appeared in court in handcuffs on Wednesday, charged with mischief, possession of explosives, weapons and of intimidating “justice system participants” – the latter a rare charge associated with threatening or harassing judges, jurors and lawyers.
His bail hearing was pushed back to Saturday because the police investigation is still continuing. A publication ban has been placed on the proceedings.
International wire services called the charges an alleged “terrorist plot” leading up to Toronto's weekend to host the world leaders.
But those who have worked with the 37-year-old computer security expert and mountain-biking aficionado say there's no way he would pose a threat to public safety.
“He’s a security professional for a living. And … getting an idea of whether security is actually effective is something security people are trained to look into,” said Seth Hardy, a former member of HackLab T.O., a community “hackspace” and collective of technologically interested people based in Toronto’s Kensington Market.
Mr. Hardy thinks Mr. Sonne’s desire to look into summit security was “absolutely” related to his arrest.
“There’s no way he was plotting on doing harm. There’s no way he was building bombs. He’s just not that kind of person.”
The evening of May 5, Mr. Sonne was one of about a dozen people sitting around a table in a Queen and Ossington basement at one of the inaugural meetings of the Surveillance Club – a group of academics and activists interested in the study of the way people are watched.
Jesse Hirsh, a Toronto broadcaster and Internet activist, remembers Mr. Sonne talking animatedly, and with the expertise of someone who knew his way around security systems, about his plans to listen in on security force’s radio chatter and broadcast it on Twitter.
Activists did something similar when Pittsburgh hosted the G20 last fall. When police arrested two New York men and accused them of aiding protesters’ criminal activity by posting police movements on Twitter, it sparked a wide-ranging free speech case.
The Toronto police started to encrypt their radio system this year, to make it more difficult for someone to listen in.
Mr. Hirsh notes Mr. Sonne also talked about testing just what it would take to trigger a security response. He spoke about it as a means of studying the “security theatre” around the summit.
Mr. Sonne is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), requirements for which include at least five years of full-time, professional experience in information security best practices and a written endorsement from an existing CISSP.
His certification has been suspended “pending resolution of this matter,” said Dorsey Morrow, general counsel for the organization responsible for the certifications.
Julian Dunn, a digital designer who worked with Mr. Sonne designing security software at FSC Internet in 2003, remembers an affable guy who was politically left-leaning and had a penchant for electronics and mountain-biking in the Don Valley.
Mr. Dunn was shocked to learn of the charges against his former colleague, whom he last saw at a party a few months ago.
Criminal lawyer Alan Young can only remember two occasions in the past decade when the charge of intimidation of justice system participants was used. They’re designed to prevent intimidation or harassment of people like jurors and judges, but are seldom used, he said – “we don’t live in Colombia.”
The two-storey house on eldergrove drive was still cordoned off by yellow police tape as night fell Wednesday. About a dozen police officers were around the property -- several of them clustered around the front door and backyard.
With reports from Cigdem Iltan and Rick Cash
